BurmaNet News May 24, 2005

[Editor]

May 24, 2005 Issue # 2725

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: More Ceasefire Groups Expected to Break with Rangoon
AP: Myanmar's currency falls to year's low of 1,000 kyat to US dollar
Xinhua: Myanmar to enhance economic, trade cooperation with Chinese Yunnan
province

BUSINESS / FINANCE
Xinhua: Singapore company to produce medicine in Myanmar
Mizzima: Burma-Bangla Trade Agreement Expires

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Myanmar remains serious human rights violator: Amnesty
AFP: "Pockets of repression" mar rights progress in Asia: Amnesty
International

OPINION / OTHER
Time Asia: Hunting the Junta
The Straits Times: Don't push Myanmar into a corner

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 24, Irrawaddy
More Ceasefire Groups Expected to Break with Rangoon - Kyaw Zwa Moe

More ceasefire groups in Burma are expected to follow the lead of the Shan
State National Army in breaking ceasefire accords with the ruling military
regime, according to ethnic leaders.

The Shan State National Army, which signed a ceasefire agreement with the
military government in 1995, broke with Rangoon on Saturday and merged
with the rebel group Shan State Army (South). It was the first such action
in 10 years by any of the 17 ceasefire groups. The last to break with
Rangoon was the ethnic rebel Karenni National Progressive Party, in 1995.

The pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a splinter group of the
Karen National Union, is now very likely to merge with the KNU if the
junta keeps pressuring it to disarm, said sources close to the DKBA in
Karen State. A member of the DKBA said a high-ranking Rangoon military
official had recently met a DKBA leader and told him to follow the
government’s “exchange arms for peace” program, as other ceasefire groups
had done.

The DKBA member said his organization wouldn’t hand in its weapons to the
government.

The Rangoon government has been pressuring ceasefire groups to disarm, one
by one. The ethnic Palaung State Liberation Army and the Shan State
National Army recently complied.

A day before the Shan State National Army joined the Shan State Army
(South), the state-run radio and television reported that 325 SSNA members
had handed over their arms to the government.

The general secretary of the KNU, Mahn Sha, said the SSNA had cancelled
its ceasefire agreement with the junta and joined with the SSA-S as a
direct consequence of the government pressure to hand in its arms. “More
ceasefire groups will come out if the SPDC [State Peace and Development
Council] has been pressuring them to disarm,” Mahn Sha warned

Aung Myint, spokesman of the United Wa State Army, told The Irrawaddy
Tuesday that the government hadn’t yet brought any pressure on his
movement to disarm.

A senior official of the UWSA in northern Shan State said that the
ceasefire groups will all have to disarm. The 16,000-strong UWSA is the
most powerful ceasefire group, and for several weeks, with the backing of
the Burma Army, it has been engaged in fighting with the Shan State Army
(South) in the Mong Ton area of northern Shan State, opposite Thailand’s
Mae Hong Son province

The military government has reportedly told the ceasefire groups to
transform themselves into political parties, and has included them in the
National Convention. The NC is charged with drawing up a constitution
providing for a general election, and observers say the ceasefire groups
are likely to be allowed to participate in such an election. The NC has
been in recess since April, however.

Dr La Ja, general secretary of another ceasefire group, the Kachin
Independence Organization, said he believes that the government will move
to disarm all ethnic ceasefire groups after the completion of a new
constitution.

____________________________________

May 24, Associated Press
Myanmar's currency falls to year's low of 1,000 kyat to US dollar

Myanmar's currency, the kyat, on Tuesday fell to 1,000 to the U.S. dollar
on the black market, a record low for the year.

The kyat has been falling steadily, going from 880 per U.S. dollar in
January to 950 at the beginning of May.

Money changers could not pinpoint a reason for the kyat's fall. The
military government shows no signs of shakiness, although the capital,
Yangon, was stunned May 7 by three terrorist bombs at public places that
killed at least 19 people. The bombings were blamed on dissident groups
based on the border with Thailand.

The official exchange rate for the kyat, which is non-convertible, is six
to the dollar, but most business transactions and consumer sales are
conducted at the black market rate. The government usually tolerates the
unofficial exchange rate as the only realistic way of conducting trade.

A dealer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the black market rate
is linked to neighboring Thailand's currency - the baht - as well as the
strength of the dollar on world markets, and trends in border trade.

He said that when people are wary of keeping kyat, they buy dollars, which
are more desirable to hold and easier to sell.

The government usually blames rumormongers and market manipulators for
currency instability. They normally react by warning black market dealers,
or in some cases, even rounding them up and giving them long jail
sentences.

The kyat crashed to an all-time low of 1,300 to the dollar in September
2002, after relatives of former dictator Ne Win were convicted of high
treason.

_____________________________________

May 24, Xinhua
Myanmar to enhance economic, trade cooperation with Chinese Yunnan province
Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Thein Sein said on May 24 that his
country wishes to enhance economic and trade cooperation with Yunnan
province of China.

Thein Sein, First Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council,
made the remarks when he met with visiting governor of Yunnan province of
China Xu Rongkai.

At the meeting, Xu stressed that his Yangon visit is to develop the
traditional and friendly ties with Myanmar and boost economic and trade
relations between Yunnan province and the country.

On Monday, Xu met with several other Myanmar ministers separately. The two
sides had discussions on launching bilateral cooperation in the sectors of
agriculture, oil and gas, and electric power, boosting of normal and
border trade, strengthening of border area management including joint
combating of narcotic-drug-related cases and transnational crimes such as
human trafficking.

According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar trade amounted to
1.145 billion US dollars in 2004, up 6.3 percent from 2003.

Trade between Yunnan Province and Myanmar, including the border trade,
amounted to 400 million US dollars in 2004, a 25-percent increase from
2003. Yunnan's exports to Myanmar took 240 million dollars, while its
imports from Myanmar represented 160 million dollars, the figures show.

Xu, who leads a 16-member delegation, arrived here Sunday on a visit to
Myanmar at the invitation of Yangon Mayor Brigadier-General Aung Thein
Lin.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

May 24, Xinhua
Singapore company to produce medicine in Myanmar

A Singapore company just reached an agreement with the Myanmar Ministry of
Industry to produce intravenous injections in the country, state-owned
newspaper the New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

According to the agreement signed here Monday between the Pavo Trading Pte
Ltd of Singapore and the Myanma Pharmaceutical Industries under the
ministry, 2.5 million of 500-milli-liter intravenous injections will be
produced annually at the Inraung Pharmaceutical Factory in Kyaukse,
northern Mandalay division.

On the same day, another Singaporean company -- the L and Z Trading and
Investment Pte Ltd -- and the Myanma General and Maintenance Industries
under the same ministry also signed an agreement on the supply of
machinery for ceramics and household goods factory in Kyaukse. That
factory will produce 5 million pieces of ceramics and 3 million tons of
steel products a year.

Singapore is the largest investor in Myanmar with over 1.5 billion US
dollars being injected into the country as of the beginning of 2004.

The new investment is being put into Myanmar by some Singapore companies
in partnership with the Chinese in oil and natural gas exploration.

Official statistics show that Myanmar-Singapore bilateral trade amounted
to 804.56 million US dollars in the fiscal year 2003-04 and 336 million US
dollars in the first five months (April-August) of 2004-05. Singapore also
stands as Myanmar's second largest trading partner after Thailand.
Enditem.

_____________________________________

May 24, Mizzima
Burma-Bangla Trade Agreement Expires - Siddique Islam

Dhaka: With no transactions in the past two years, the term  of the
Account Trade Arrangement (ATA) between Burma and Bangladesh has expired
without any initiative for a renewal.

A report, submitted to the Ministry of Commerce(MoC) by the state-owned
Sonali Bank has, has called for taking the final decision on the bilateral
trade agreement.

"There had been no trade between the two countries under ATA in the last
two years due to the lack of publicity by the concerned authorities," a
senior official of the Bank told the Mizzima correspondent.

ATA, also known as the bilateral payment arrangement, is a trade
facilitating mechanism that allows the participating countries to conduct
normal trade activities without large amount of hard currencies.

The official said both the governments should take necessary measures to
activate the trade arrangement for strengthening the bilateral trade
relation.

Burma and Bangladesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March
19, 2003 to introduce ATA to revamp trade relation between the two
countries.

"We are now reviewing the whole matter before taking a final decision on
ATA renewal," a  senior MoC official said, adding that Rangoon would have
to take initiative for renewal of the trade arrangement.

Two commercial banks--Sonali Bank of Bangladesh and Myanmar Investment and
Commercial Bank (MICB) of Burma--were selected to operate the trade
transactions between the two countries.

According to the agreement, the selected banks can establish letter of
credit worth up to 10 million dollars and they will settle the account
between themselves at the end of a six-month period--a process in which
the debtor pays the creditor only the difference.

The volume of bilateral trade between the two countries has been on the
wane for years due to lack of proper initiatives. The balance of trade,
according to officials, has remained tilted in favour of Burma over the
past eight years.

Bangladesh exported goods and commodities of only 3.52 million dollars to
Burma in 2003-2004 while the worth of its import during the period stood
at 26.55 million dollars.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 24, Agence France Prese
Myanmar remains serious human rights violator: Amnesty

Military-ruled Myanmar has continued its poor track record of human rights
violations by continuing forced labor, imprisonment of political prisoners
and abuse of ethnic minorities, human rights watchdog Amnesty
International said Wednesday.

In its annual report, the London-based group took the junta to task for
jailing protesters for peaceful acts of dissent and the continued
detention of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and said the political
paralysis in the impoverished nation was restricting liberties.

"In Myanmar... the political stalemate prevailing since 1988 offered
little prospect of increased freedom of expression and association,"
Amnesty said.

"Hundreds of prisoners, including National League for Democracy leaders
Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo, were wrongfully denied their liberty for
peaceful acts that would not be considered crimes under international
law."

The NLD won 1990 elections in Myanmar but was never allowed to rule by the
military, which has held power since 1962.

Amnesty, whose representatives officially visited Myanmar in December 2003
but were barred from meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, said more than 1,300
political prisoners remained behind bars in 2004, "including many who had
already served their sentences".

The junta announced it released 14,318 prisoners in November and December
who it said had been wrongfully arrested by the National Intelligence
Bureau, which was abolished after Khin Nyunt was removed as prime minister
in October and replaced by another army general.

According to Amnesty only about 40 of them were political prisoners.

Amnesty blamed the military for a series of abuses in 2004, particularly
against minority groups.

"The army continued to commit serious human rights violations against
ethnic minority civilians during counter-insurgency operations in the Mon,
Shan and Kayin states, and in Tanintharyi division," the report said, and
that the Rohingyas in Rakhine state were severely affected.

"Ethnic minority civilians living in all these areas continued to be
subjected to forced labor by the military."

Amnesty also noted that the United Nations special rapporteur to Myanmar
was not allowed to visit the country in 2004.

_____________________________________

May 24, Agence France Presse
"Pockets of repression" mar rights progress in Asia: Amnesty International

Amnesty International said Wednesday Asia had recorded some progress on
human rights but warned that "pockets of repression" remained, with many
abuses committed in the name of the "war on terror".

In its annual report, the London-based human rights watchdog singled out
for "grave human rights violations" the long-festering conflicts in Nepal,
northeast India and Indonesia's Aceh province.

It also voiced concern about the newly-emerged conflict that has flared in
southern Thailand, where at least 78 demonstrators suffocated inside army
lorries and 500 people had been killed by the end of last year.

Human rights abuses were also frequent in Asian conflicts where both sides
were working on a resolution -- in Kashmir, Sri Lanka and the Philippines
-- and in little-watched troublespots, such as the 30-year-old conflict in
Laos.

The group also said there were grave concerns for the human rights of
vulnerable groups affected by the tsunami that killed more than 250,000
people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

In its annual report, which follows recent reports of prisoner abuse in
Afghanistan, the group highlighted violations committed in the US-led "war
on terror" in Afghanistan and Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area.

"In Afghanistan, hundreds of people suspected of being sympathizers of the
Taliban or Al-Qaeda were held in long-term arbitrary detention at Bagram
airbase and other detention centres run by the US armed forces," it said.

"Without access to judicial authorities, the detainees were effectively
beyond the reach or protection of the law."

Islamic minorities were also targeted in China's northwestern Uighur
region, where many were arbitrarily arrested as "separatists, terrorists
and religious extremists", the report said.

Islamist terrorists, meanwhile, had killed civilians in bomb attacks on
the Australian embassy in Jakarta and a ferry in Manila Bay.

Amnesty International noted some positive developments for human rights
and peace in Asia, including the diplomatic thaw between nuclear rivals
India and Pakistan.

Human rights had been debated at large meetings in Mumbai, Seoul and
Kathmandu and had "shaped many political agendas" in elections in
Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and
South Korea.

"Tentative moves towards democratisation and increased human rights" had
also been made in Brunei, the Maldives and Bhutan.

The secluded Himalayan kingdom of Buthan had abolished the death penalty,
bucking the trend on the continent with the highest number of executions.

In other countries, however, conflicts and abuses had worsened.

Nepal, where a Maoist rebellion is raging, had "slipped deeper into
crisis", topping the number of disappearances reported to the United
Nations for the second year in a row, the report said.

In Indonesia's Aceh province, hit hard by the tsunami disaster, the
separatist conflict was marked by a "pattern of grave abuses of civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights".

"The Indonesian security forces were primarily responsible for these
violations, although the Free Aceh Movement also committed serious abuses,
notably the taking of hostages and the use of child soldiers," it said.

In Sri Lanka, the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had killed
several candidates and supporters of rival political parties in the run-up
to April parliamentary elections.

A ceasefire had also been broken in the Philippines, where the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front had repeatedly clashed with government forces,
and both sides were guilty of human rights abuses.

Laos, Myanmar and North Korea were suppressing political dissent and the
freedom of speech. China and Vietnam had imposed "new, often draconian,
regulations on use of the Internet" to stifle free speech.

In military-ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, the outlook for reform
remained bleak, with the National League for Democracy leader, Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and other opposition figures still under house
arrest.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 23, Time Asia
Hunting the Junta - Andrew Perrin

A new report targets Burma's military rulers for crimes against its
minority ethnic groups

Burma's military rulers are notorious for using brute force. Now a
human-rights report accuses them of using that force against the country's
ethnic-minority populations. Released last week, "Dying Alive: A Legal
Assessment of Human Rights in Burma" is 600 pages long and was three years
in the making. The author is British human-rights researcher Guy Horton,
who was inspired to do the study by his friend, British academic Michael
Aris, the late husband of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
Produced with funds from the Dutch government and non profit
organizations, the report draws on material collected from Horton's own
trips to Burma plus a wide range of documents, photographs and maps
sourced from different Burma-interest groups. It's the first time that
alleged abuses by the junta—among them systematic rape and forced
labor—have been so comprehensively documented and analyzed. Taken as a
whole, claims Horton, the litany of atrocities may add up to ethnic
cleansing of Burma's minorities like the Karen, the Karrenni and the Shan.
"What's taking place in Burma is not mass killing like in Rwanda," he told
TIME. "It's a slow, indirect form of destruction."

Burma's failure to improve its human-rights record is testing the world's
patience. The Bush Administration has announced it will renew sanctions
against the junta, citing the government's suppression of the country's
democratic opposition. And with Burma set to chair the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year, its neighbors are trying to
persuade the country's military dictators to "voluntarily" give up their
turn, so as to avoid the embarrassing prospect of the U.S. and E.U.
boycotting the forum's meetings. On that, at least, Rangoon appears to be
listening: Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Thailand's Foreign Ministry spokesman,
told TIME the generals had agreed to "bear in mind the larger interests of
ASEAN." But that's unlikely to include the interests of Burma's people.

_____________________________________

May 23, The Straits Times
Don't push Myanmar into a corner - Verghese Mathews

THE ongoing debate and speculation whether Myanmar would, or should,
assume the chairmanship of Asean next year has, in a way, served to
highlight again the rich and sometimes threatening diversity of the
regional grouping and its unique style of arriving at consensus.

In this context, there have been ad nauseam commentaries, since Asean's
membership increased to 10, that it had become a two-tiered grouping of
the 'more developed' original six (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) and the newer 'struggling' countries
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - often known as the CLMV nations.

The message here was that the divide would contribute to greater
administrative difficulties, including hammering out consensus.

The 'two-tier' description is fair comment and remains a challenge that is
being tackled by the grouping on the basis that the divide cannot and
should not be a permanent feature.

To this end, Asean leaders adopted then-Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok
Tong's proposal in November 2000 of the Initiative for Asean Integration
(IAI) - a package of practical ways and means to close the development
gap.

Singapore, for example, opened training centres in the four CLMV countries
in 2001 and has been providing tailored empowerment courses identified by
the respective host countries. The other older members likewise have their
own programmes.

While much of the reward accruing from the IAI programmes will be seen
only in the long term, it is being accelerated by the great enthusiasm and
demand for education and training in the CLMV countries, which are
themselves as development-oriented as the older six countries.

However, what is sometimes missed out is that the Asean divide is more
than merely economic or developmental. The Myanmar controversy has
highlighted a difference in the mindset within the grouping, leading maybe
even to a thin fissure line, with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam demonstrating
a greater empathy for Myanmar than the other member countries.

Here again, this is neither surprising nor can be wished away quickly
given the historical baggage of the four countries and the difficulties
they have individually encountered in warding off what they perceive to be
foreign interference in their internal affairs.

No doubt, like the rest of Asean, the CLMV countries recognise the dilemma
faced if Myanmar assumes the chairmanship next year: It will not be
helpful for Asean.

At the same time, if Myanmar is forced out of the chairmanship against its
will, it would also not be a desired outcome and would be a 'bad
precedent'.

However, despite these practical regional considerations, the CLMV
countries are particularly outraged by external pressure (read Western
governments) now disingenuously using the back door of Asean's rotating
chairmanship to pursue an objective in Myanmar.

What hitherto could not be achieved by external pressure against an
individual member country would now appear possible because of a weak spot
in Asean's organisational structure.

It was, therefore, not at all surprising that the well-honed survival
instincts of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos immediately detected areas of
concern and threats for themselves in what was happening to Myanmar.

Many questions rushed to the fore as these countries themselves had
nagging internal problems which have been externalised - treatment of
minority ethnic groups, human rights violations or broad governance
issues.

Has Asean cohesiveness weakened? Can a member country under external
pressure depend on Asean support if it is its turn to chair the regional
grouping? Is Asean membership still premium? More importantly, which
country will be next?

These are valid questions if you are weak and dependent on foreign direct
investment and donor assistance for survival.

Meanwhile, there is a school of thought - not just in the CLMV countries
but in Asean as a whole - that seriously doubts whether the present 'take
it or leave it' Western approach can achieve its objectives in Myanmar.

This school believes the strong-arm methods at most bruise the ego of the
ruling junta in Yangon without directly benefiting or furthering the cause
of Myanmar's people - the very purpose for the sanctions and threats in
the first place. In fact, the fear is that Myanmar may be driven
backwards.

This school bemoans that Western powers and liberal bleeding-hearts do not
understand regional dynamics, and while all the grandstanding and loud
threats may serve to placate some constituencies at home, it is
counter-productive to encouraging reform in the target country.

They point out that in the present instance, Myanmar can, for example,
take a rain check on the chairmanship and then proceed at a pace the junta
is comfortable with in the constitutional process.

Here, members of this school of thought point to China with its quiet
diplomacy playing a cleverer regional game than Western countries -
supporting the theory that there are times when it is best that less is
said.

Myanmar bears a heavy burden and increasingly, the indications are it is
waiting for an appropriate time and forum to pass up its turn at
chairmanship.

Apparently, it has privately dropped encouraging hints to individual
member countries of its intention to sacrifice national pride and be
helpful to the region. Should this happen, it would demonstrate a definite
shift in the attitude of this proud country.

While waiting for the next move, possibly at the Asean Ministerial Meeting
in July, here is something to ponder.

There was a time not too long ago when a Myanmar that had come under the
kind of pressure of the past months would have just walked out of Asean.

No doubt it is a somewhat different Myanmar now - perhaps less confident
and arguably less united. Nevertheless, the possibility cannot be
dismissed that it can still walk out of the regional organisation.

In such a situation, Myanmar would have calculated it need not fear
isolation - it can move closer to China and to India while continuing to
maintain bilateral relations with its erstwhile Asean partners.

Such a move will neither be good for the region nor for the people of
Myanmar.

________________________________________________
The writer, a former Singapore ambassador to Cambodia, is a visiting
fellow at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies.